


Kin

by GhulehGang



Category: Sonic X, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Science Fiction, Work In Progress, basically Shadow becomes a dad on accident
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:56:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28157196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhulehGang/pseuds/GhulehGang
Summary: Childhood: A concept that he understood although he never necessarily lived through it himself-- a universal experience that one would typically reminisce.Tragedy: Something that, due to the fate assigned to him, he was destined to relive time and time again.Fatherhood: a role that Shadow never intended to pursue.
Kudos: 2





	Kin

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, just thought I'd list a few content warnings before we begin! This work is heavily inspired by Resident Evil 7 which is if you don't already know, a horror game. So, obviously, it's going to feature some mature content. There's lots of blood, body horror, and other angsty stuff, so if that isn't your cup of tea, I'm sorry to say that this fic may not be fit for your viewership.

Spent shell casings littered the linoleum floor, illuminated from a flickering light fixture above, which swung in place, suspended only from a single torn wire-- threatening to snap and fall onto him as he entered the Laboratory. Blood painted the cream-colored wall behind the receptionist’s desk, where files and documents were scattered and a mug of coffee sat toppled, dripping over the edge of the desk and onto the face of a woman. Her fish-like glossy eyes reflected his own as he crouched to investigate her corpse. The ripe smell which wafted to his nose led him to conclude that she must have been there for quite a while, at least long enough to begin the process of decomposition. He was indifferent to the stench-- but his partner, however, let out an exaggerated gag.  
“Jesus, Shadow.” Said Agent Rouge, who turned her head away in disgust and lifted the collar of her tan trenchcoat to cover her nose. “That’s rancid! I can’t believe I agreed to this.”  
“They didn’t give you the chance to disagree. That alone should tell you just how serious this ought to be, so maybe you should wise up and stop complaining.” Agent Shadow replied coldly as he stepped over the body and glanced over the papers on the desk and floor. Rouge scoffed and backed away from the graphic scene, looking away scornfully.  
“Alright Mr. Sassypants, what’s got you so riled?”  
The hedgehog sighed, “I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to be paying attention during the briefing.” He put a finger to his chin as his red eyes skimmed a document in his hand, “Just keep your guard up, I can’t afford to get distracted.”  
“So there’s a big vine monster lurking the halls, big whoop.” Rouge responded passively with a smile, “We just shoot it down and go home-- assuming that whoever got here before us hasn’t already killed it, which would be awesome, by the way. One less thing for us to worry about.”   
“It’s not a vine monster. It’s a bioweapon and it’ll take a lot more than a few bullets to kill it. Besides, I know it isn’t dead.” Shadow said as he stuffed the documents into the pocket of his leather jacket.   
“Oh, yeah? How do you know that?” Asked Rouge with a raised brow as she followed him with her weapon readied as they turned a corner into a dim hallway.  
“Because it’s here.” He replied, “I can feel it.”   
They lapsed into silence as they crept through the hall and passed labeled doors. Examination rooms, x-ray centers-- The Lab looked more like a hospital than a research facility. His light leaked into offices with sterile beds and counters that held medical equipment and glass jars filled with cotton balls and tongue compressors. At first glance, it looked like a place you’d go to get a regular check-up.   
“Now wait a damn minute,” Said Rouge, her heels clicking against the floor as they passed room after room, “I’m confused. Chief really sold me on the whole mad-scientist thing. I expected to be infiltrating some top-secret lab, not a clinic.”  
Shadow didn’t reply. Instead, he pushed through one of the many doors in the hallway and scanned the room with his flashlight, raising a brow when something interesting caught his attention. With a gloved finger, he swiped the surface of a brown wooden countertop, revealing a layer of dust that was so deep that if you had told him it had been caked there since the beginning of time, he’d believe you.   
“It’s all a front.” He said as he peeked out into the hallway before stepping out of the room. “They intended to keep up the appearance of a clinic. No wonder they managed to lay low for so long. I suspect there’s probably a second entrance around here somewhere.”   
Rouge followed him to the end of the hallway where a set of massive iron-plated double-doors waited for them, standing tall in the menacing darkness. Shadow grasped the door handle and yanked hard, but the doors would not budge. And, as he yanked harder, a thick black ooze seeped through the gap between both doors, acting like glue to keep it firmly shut. He grunted in frustration and grasped both handles, planting his feet firmly on the floor as he pulled-- siphoning all of his power and strength as the ultimate lifeform. It took all of his effort to pull the doors apart, and once he did, the black mystery slime remained intact, stringing between the two doors like a spider web, which Rouge lifted a curious finger to touch.  
“Don’t” Shadow advised, grabbing her wrist before her skin had the opportunity to come into contact with the ooze as he pulled from his pocket a concealed ragged knife, which he then used to poke at the stringy slime. Rouge gasped as the black ooze seemed to respond upon being touched as if it were an intelligent being, jittering and pulsating as Shadow sliced through it vertically. As it fell to the white tile, it looked as though it was making an attempt to flee from him-- moving slowly across the floor like a massive black slug into the dark hall beyond the door.   
Rouge watched it move with her mouth agape. “Is that thing… alive?” She asked with a voice full of both wonder and hesitance, “That gunk-- whatever it is, better keep slithering!” She raised her pistol at it, “Better yet, maybe I should just put it out of its nasty slimy misery--”  
“--No,” Shadow grabbed her gun and pointed it back to the floor, following the creature with his light as its gooey body slid against the linoleum, leaving a wet trail down the formerly sealed hallway. “I say we follow it.”  
Rouge’s head snapped in his direction and she looked at him with wide eyes, “Uh, you’re kidding, right?” Shadow didn’t respond and pushed past her shoulder, his black fur disappearing into the intimidating darkness of the hall. She gulped and shouted after him, “Shadow?!” Of course, the stubborn hedgehog neglected to answer her, and she stood there for a moment longer before growing increasingly more and more anxious the longer she spent alone in the dark facility by herself. She caved, running after him only when his light was no longer visible as he turned a corner. “God, how rude!” She muttered to herself in a whisper, “Who leaves a lady all alone in the dark like that?!”   
She met again with Shadow by a security check-point at the end of the corridor, which looked as though it had been sectioned off by glass before it had been infiltrated and blasted to bits by bullets. Glass shards decorated the floor, sticking out through the fabric-lined benches of the waiting area. Despite the chaotic disarray of his surroundings, Shadow kept his gaze fixated on the little black creature, which slithered it’s way around the obstacles of debris on the ground and past the desk toward a sealed-off elevator. Rouge was the first to see the guards behind the security desk, who lay dead on the ground even though they were armed to the teeth with rifles and holstered pistols.   
“Guess these guys didn’t stand a chance…” She commented, “Who do you think could have done this?”  
Shadow watched as the black sludge-like creature slipped through the crack of the elevator. He scanned all around the doors, but he could find no buttons to operate it. The only thing he did see was a blinking red card-reader. “I’d say the Doctor, but he prefers unconventional methods.” He glanced over to her, “Check to see if either of them have a keycard, would you?”  
She hummed in dissatisfaction and crouched beside the two guards, picking at their clothes with reluctance as if the men might come back to life and bite her. “Yeah, you’re right.” She said with a grunt as she pushed one of the corpses over so that she could search his coat pockets, “Eggman isn’t this straightforward.” After a bit of poking and prodding, she pulled on a lanyard that was tucked in one of the guard’s back pockets, exposing an attached keycard which she promptly haphazardly threw in Shadow’s direction. He caught it with ease and slid the keycard into the reader, causing it to blink green before the elevator doors opened with a subtle ‘Ding!’  
They hurried inside and allowed the metal doors to slide shut behind them. The black creature was nowhere to be seen as they investigated the interior of the lift. The only thing that Shadow found particularly noteworthy was the fact that the elevator only had one button. The two agents glanced at each other with matching interest.   
“I guess we’re going down.” Said Rouge with an anxious sigh.  
“No other choice,” Shadow responded. With no hesitation, the hedgehog pushed the button and stepped back, allowing the lift to rattle and shake as it began to drop them further into the building. Contrary to his expectations, it felt very ordinary. So ordinary that, when the doors finally opened minutes later after their descent, they were both awestruck by what they saw.   
It was a massive cavernous room, lit with the flashing multi-colored light that was projected from digital monitors on the walls and columns-- showcasing walls of green text, data, and pictures of enzymes and DNA. Now, this was a research facility-- one that actually exceeded his expectations. It was sophisticated with its white marble and glittering intricate chandeliers. The decor was a bit strange, showcasing sculptures of odd creatures made of solid gold, which were so eye-catching that they had actually noticed it before they saw the dead bodies of the remaining staff-- clad in their white lab coats with clipboards clutched with the sharp grip of rigor mortis. Most of them faced down onto the ground, smothered in pools of their own blood, while others sat up against the shattered digital screens on the walls. It was a tragedy that they had stumbled upon-- but Shadow had very little time to process it.   
It was a feeling. A vibration beneath his skin. A shiver. A sixth sense. It forced his eyes to look toward the right, and he didn’t quite understand why. His eyes darted around the area, scanning for whatever had set off such a specific primal instinct in his mind. It was there, he knew it was there-- but he was searching for all of the things that it was not. Tentacles, massive black vines, the eyes of a monster… such things were described to him in the briefing. However, he saw no such creature looking back at him. No monster with vine-like appendages-- just the sweet emerald eyes of a little girl blinking at him curiously.   
She was the tiniest hedgehog child that he had ever seen. Perhaps four to six years of age, hardly reaching the height of the knob to the ajar door from which she peeked. Her grey fur and quills blended in with the white surroundings so much that not even Rouge noticed her at first, but once she did, she gasped and pointed.   
“Is that a kid?”  
The little girl didn’t bother to look in Rouge’s direction. Instead, she kept her eyes on Shadow, watching him cautiously as she bent toward the little black slug on the floor which was inching toward her from it’s gooey trail. He watched as the creature on the floor jumped into the palm of her hand, disappearing into her skin as if she had absorbed it. Then, she maintained her steady gaze on him as if she knew that he was a threat to her very existence. In that moment, they both shared a mutual understanding of each other. He felt like a computer downloading data while they locked eyes with each other. The more he stared, the more he understood about her. Though her expression remained blank, he felt a signal of distress.   
“No,” Shadow said in an astonished whisper, “That’s it.”  
“What do you mean that’s it?”   
“The bioweapon. It’s that little girl.”  
“You’re kidding.” Rouge said in a breathy voice, “The Chief cannot possibly expect us to kill a kid!”  
Shadow cocked his gun.   
“Shadow, if you aim that gun at that kid I will seriously never forgive you!”  
“Relax.” He replied, “I’m not going to shoot the kid.” Despite his words, he raised his weapon in the child’s direction and spoke a simple command, “Step into the light. I want you both in my sight.”  
Rouge’s initial confusion seemed to dissipate only after a hand appeared from the darkness behind the child and guided her out into the open. It was a man who revealed himself-- a white, middle-aged hedgehog with a scar over his right eye, dressed elegantly in a suit and clean white lab coat. In his hand, he held a semi-automatic hand-gun-- the barrel of which was pressed firmly against the back of the little girl’s skull. Shadow, of course, recognized the man from their briefing the day before and shouted to him from across the large facility.   
“Dr. Bridge, I assume?”  
“My god,” Dr. Bridge replied, his mouth wide in awe, “You’re… you’re the ultimate lifeform… real and in the flesh…” Although he smiled at Shadow with the intention to seem harmless, there was an unhinged twitch to his right eye, “I’ve admired Professor Robotnik’s work for years. He was a genius beyond his time. You’re really a sight to behold, Mr. Shadow the Hedgehog.”  
Shadow ignored his strange fanatic praise and kept his pistol with a steady aim between the Doctor’s eyes, “Drop your weapon.” He ordered.   
“I figured you were sent here to annihilate my creation, not protect it. She was modeled after you, you know.” Dr. Bridge chuckled sadly, “I was a fool to think I could flawlessly replicate Gerald’s work-- I mean, look at you. You’re astonishing.”  
“I said, drop your weapon,” Shadow repeated between gritted teeth.   
“I heard you the first time, though I’m afraid that you don’t understand the position I’m in--”  
“--I understand that you’re a terroristic scientist who thought he could play God and get away with it. You’re a fool if you think I’ll allow you to walk free from this place. So I’m going to say this one more time so your puny feeble mind can understand… drop. Your. Weapon. Now.”  
Rouge glanced nervously between both parties as the tension in the room grew thicker. Despite Shadow’s constant orders, Dr. Bridge would not drop his weapon. In fact, he even cocked it-- looking Shadow square in the eyes with a smug expression as he did it.  
“I’m not afraid to die, you know. Hundra will carry out my will even if she doesn’t want to. It’s in her nature.”  
Shadow, though his rage and irritation was quite clear, spoke to his partner with a delicate whisper so that the mad scientist on the other side of the room could not hear him. “On the count of three, Rouge. You know what to do.”  
Rouge raised and pointed her weapon at Dr. Bridge. “Right.”  
“One.” Said Shadow  
“Two.” Replied Rouge as she cocked her pistol.  
“Three.”  
It all happened within that instant. It was a flash-- a blur of red and a loud, echoing ‘BANG!’ Dr. Bridge’s body fell to the floor, weighed down by the impact of the bullet that was deployed from Rouge’s pistol. Shadow’s speed was unmatched, and although Bridge had attempted to pull the trigger at that exact moment, Shadow had pulled the child away milliseconds before-hand, swooping her up into his arms and hiding her eyes away from her dying creator, who was left gasping and coughing up blood on the ground for just a moment before he inevitably embraced death on the cold, white marble floor of his fallen facility.   
Now that the child was in his arms, Shadow could tell clearly that she was not as calm as the blank expression on her face initially made her out to be. She looked up to him with timid eyes and shook as she examined him. Her body was tensed as if she expected to be attacked, so he dropped her gently onto the floor and bent to meet her height.  
“Hello.” He greeted, “What should I call you?”  
She glanced over in the direction of the body of her dead creator as she replied, but he leaned his head to cover her view, “Hundra.” She replied in a fragile whisper. It was hard to believe that such a tiny creature was capable of all of the horrors that were described to them during their briefing-- this child, who looked up to him with such innocent, twinkling eyes, had been being used as a catalyst for terrorism. Created in His own image with a purpose that was the complete opposite of his own. Yet, at the same time, he could perceive her as nothing more than a sniveling, scared little child-- and he related to her so deeply that his instinct was to pity her. His logical mind, however, reminded him to be cautious.   
“Hundra,” He said as he looked into her eyes with authority, “Are you dangerous?”  
She tilted her head and looked to the floor. It seemed as though she was trying to gauge an appropriate response, thinking hard before opening her mouth to answer, “Sometimes.” She replied. “Only when I have to be.”  
He nodded and considered her words as Rouge approached from behind him, “Alright, now what are we supposed to do with her? We can’t just leave her, but the Chief won’t be happy if we take her back to H.Q.”  
Shadow responded, “Well, he’s going to have to deal with it.” He reached toward Hundra with a slow, calculated upward palm, careful not to make any sudden movements that might alarm her. He treated her as if she were a frightened, injured creature who could at any moment turn feral. He made his offer to take her from the Laboratory nonverbally, hoping to send a signal in the same way that she did to him earlier-- which Hundra took a moment to consider before asking him a question of her own.  
“Are you dangerous?”  
He hadn’t expected such a question. Nor had he expected her to speak such clearly articulated words. But, it was a fair question to ask. So, he answered honestly,  
“Sometimes,” He said, “Only when I have to be.”


End file.
